"What would you suggest doing?" enquired Mr. Llewellyn John tactfully.
"Get a new lock for the stable door now the horse is gone," was the uncompromising retort.
"I've asked Colonel Walton to step round," said Mr. Llewellyn John, ignoring his colleague's remark.
"It's all that fellow Sage," grumbled Sir Roger. "I went round to see him yesterday, and he was as urbane as a money-lender."
"But surely you wouldn't quarrel——"
"I always quarrel with a fool who doesn't see the consequences likely to arise out of his folly," said Sir Roger.
"If he would only play golf," murmured Mr. Llewellyn John plaintively.
"He'd resign at the first green because someone had shouted 'fore.' The man's a freak!" Sir Roger was very downright this morning.
"I wish we had a few more of the same sort," was Mr. Llewellyn John's smiling rejoinder.
Sir Roger grumbled something in his throat. Malcolm Sage was too often in antagonism with his Department for the Home Secretary to contemplate with anything but alarm a multiplicity of Sages.